When Network Rail took over the railway network in October 2002, they inherited an infrastructure that had been starved of investment for many years. Now they have made enormous progress since then and the UK now has the fastest growing railway in Europe.

A key team within Network Rail, the Buildings & Civils Design Group, has responsibility for the design of much of the expanding infrastructure of the Network.

They approached brand identity specialists On Fire with a brief to create a new identity for this key internal group of expert designers and engineers who are commissioned by other internal teams – and increasingly external Clients – to carry out crucial design and development work on our huge rail network.

They wanted an accessible identity that flagged the expertise and innovation with which they go about their business.

OnFire has managed the initial strategic process prior to actual creation of the new identity. The team led a brand development workshop and has given key strategic input into the new identity development.

Karl Lakin, Creative Director at On Fire, comments: “We have a tried and tested investigation process which really gets to the heart of what the essence of a new brand should be. We then test this on colleagues and potential customers of the organization. How a brand looks and feels is important, but the truth it’s based on is fundamental”.

Network Rail, comments: “I’m delighted with the output from OnFire. From an early stage they certainly got us thinking and took us to the point where we’ve embraced their point of view that our new brand should be centred in how we do business, not what we do as a business”

The work took place over two months in Autumn 2012 and there is now an agreed platform for the new brand’s development, which will take place early in 2013.